Utilities Say Pennsylvania Customer List Obligation Ended in 2004

The obligation of Pennsylvania natural gas distribution companies to provide updated customer lists to retail suppliers ended January 1, 2004, several distribution companies said in response to a petition for a declaratory order from retail suppliers.

As only reported by Matters, several retail suppliers have sought a declaratory order from the PUC stating that natural gas distribution companies (NGDCs) are required to regularly update their customer lists at no charge to the suppliers. Retail suppliers argued that the PUC's May 11, 2000 final order in Docket M-00991249F009 imposed a continuing obligation to provide updated customer lists.

However, National Fuel Gas Distribution Corporation and Columbia Gas, in separate answers, said that the May 11, 2000 final order confirmed that the obligation to provide updated customer lists was to cease after January 1, 2004.

National Fuel Gas Distribution noted that the express language of an April 13, 2000 tentative order in the case established an end date of January 1, 2004 for the obligation.

The May 11, 2000 final order noted that some parties had requested that the obligation to provide updated customer lists should continue indefinitely. Addressing these requests, the final order held, "As to whether these lists should be updated indefinitely, we are not inclined to address this proposal as [sic] this time. We will consider that issue again after assessing how this market develops."

"A plain and ordinary reading of the above-quoted provision from the Commission's Final Order shows that the Commission did not modify the time limitation established in the Tentative Order," National Fuel Gas Distribution Corporation said.

"Incredibly, the Petitioners declare that by refusing to address the proposal to indefinitely provide customer lists that the Commission actually adopted the proposal ... However, the Commission did not state in the Final Order that it agreed that customer lists should be provided indefinitely. Rather, the Commission refused to address that proposal and therefore denied it," National Fuel Gas Distribution Corporation said.

"By denying the proposal, the Commission left in place the time provision set forth in the Tentative Order; i.e., requiring that NGDCs only provide quarterly updates of customer lists until January 1, 2004," National Fuel Gas Distribution Corporation said.

Furthermore, National Fuel Gas Distribution Corporation noted that the Commission stated in ordering paragraph 1 of the Final Order that NGDCs, "shall comply with the procedures applicable to the transition to and implementation of full retail choice outlined in the Tentative Order, adopted Aprill3, 2000, as modified and clarified by this Final Order."

"Because the Final Order did not modify the time limitation for providing customer lists as set forth in the Tentative Order, that time limitation was effectively adopted by the Commission via the Final Order," National Fuel Gas Distribution Corporation said.

In its answer, Columbia Gas also explained why it ceased providing to suppliers the customer's account number when suppliers provided to Columbia an enrollment with the account number that did not contain the "check digit" -- a digit withheld from the account number in the customer list to protect against slamming:

"At a meeting during the collaborative process, the NGS [natural gas supplier] Parties informed Columbia that when a customer failed to provide the check digit, the NGS Parties would put a random number in the place of the check digit. Then, when the enrollment was rejected for failure to provide the complete and correct account number, Columbia's software was providing to them the correct check digit and then the Supplier would resubmit the enrollment using the information they had obtained from Columbia rather than the customer. Columbia was not aware that this was occurring, contrary to its intended procedures, and investigated. Columbia discovered that in the electronic transaction rejection report a separate, unidentified field was being generated that included the check digit. Because this violated Columbia's process of not releasing the check digit, Columbia immediately removed the field from the electronic rejection report."